New South Wales Rugby Football League season 1978

Infobox rugby league season
year = 1978
competition = New South Wales Rugby Football League


imagesize = 125px
caption =
teams = 12
premiers =
count = 4th
minor premiers =
mpcount = 5th
matches = 140
points = 4375
attendance = 1582914
top points scorer = (282)
top try scorer = (24)
1978's New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the seventy-first season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Twelve clubs, including six Sydney-based foundation teams and another six from Sydney competed for the J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Manly-Warringah and Cronulla-Sutherland clubs. NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1978 Amco Cup.

eason summary

This season video citing was introduced for incidents of foul play that are not detected on the field. Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of Western Suburbs, Cronulla-Sutherland, Manly-Warringah, Parramatta and Canterbury-Bankstown who battled it out in the finals.

Mick Cronin set a new record for most points scored by an individual in Australian club rugby league history with his tally of 282 points from 25 games in 1978. This record would stand for another twenty years. He also broke Arthur Oxford's 1920 record for consecutive goals with 26 in a row.

The 1978 season's Rothmans Medallist was Parramatta centre Mick Cronin. "Rugby League Week" gave their player of the year award to Parramatta forward Geoff Gerard.

Teams

Grand Final

In the Grand Final, Cronulla went to a 9-4 lead in the second half before Manly came back to hit the front 11-9. A Steve Rogers penalty squared it at 11-all but he then missed a desperate late field-goal attempt and at full time the scores remained locked. For the second consecutive season the weary Grand Finalists were required to play a mid-week rematch three days later.

Manly 11 (Tries: Mooney. Goals: Eadie.)

Cronulla 11 (Tries: Edmonds. Goals: Rogers 4.)

Grand Final Replay

The Tuesday rematch in front of 33,500 was Manly's sixth game in twenty-four days. It was the second Grand Final in a row to end up going into a mid-week replay with the 1977 Grand Final also needing a re-match to decide the Premiers.

In the first half Cronulla had no answer to Graham Eadie's blind-side bursts. His display completely routed the hapless Sharks and Manly went to the break holding a 15-0 lead.

The only points in the second half came from a field goal by Eadie.

In the replay, as throughout their extraordinary finals campaign, Manly were inspired by the leadership of captain Max Krilich and coach Frank Stanton, their iron-man Terry Randall, their cool five eighth Alan Thompson and classy fullback Graham Eadie.

As of the 2007 NRL season no player since Eadie has scored the combination of a try, a goal and a field-goal in a Grand Final.

Manly 16 (Tries: Gartner 2, Eadie. Goals: Eadie 3. Field Goal: Eadie.)

Cronulla 0

References

* [http://www.stats.rleague.com/rl/seas/1978.html Rugby League Tables - Season 1978] "The World of Rugby League"
* [http://www.rabbitohs.com.au/The-Club/Tradition/Results---1971-1980.html Results: 1971-80 at rabbitohs.com.au]
* [http://www.rleague.com//db/year/1978/j_j_giltinan_shield_and_wd_ho_wills_cup/index.php 1978 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com]
* [http://rugbyleagueproject.com/competitions/NSWRL_1978.html NSWRFL season 1978 at rugbyleagueproject.com]